Flipkart partners with Udacity to hire graduates based on Nanodegree projects

Flipkart hired students based on their Nanodegree projects and Udacity profiles; there were no in-person interviews or group exercises.Brinda Sarkar | ET Bureau | Updated: January 28, 2016, 17:50 IST

India’s largest online marketplace, Flipkart, today announced a partnership with online learning company Udacity, under which it would hire graduates based on capabilities they have built through Udacity’s Nanodegree programmes.

With the partnership, Flipkart expects to redefine the hiring process in the software industry based predominantly on personal interviews and referrals.

In a break from convention, Flipkart hired students based on their Nanodegree projects and Udacity profiles; there were no in-person interviews or group exercises. This ‘interview-less hiring’ approach enabled Flipkart to recruit talent swiftly, thereby shortening the hiring process.

The three graduates hired have already started working at Flipkart with the mobile development team. These graduates of Udacity’s Android Developer Nanodegree are the first ones to join the team and both companies expect more to follow.

“The kind of disruptive work that we do at Flipkart demands a world-class talent pool and we are constantly on the lookout for experts who can solve the problems of Indian consumers. The conventional hiring process often comes down to the performance of the candidate on that specific day, which may not be a true reflection of their skills and temperament. This is where a partner like Udacity comes into the picture,” said Peeyush Ranjan, chief technology officer, Flipkart.

“We met them a few months ago with our case and wanted to try out this new space. The shortlisted profiles provided by them and the in-depth data we received were very helpful and allowed us to assess the candidate's competencies in a much better way,” he added.

“Our goal is to have our Nanodegree graduates be in demand for the jobs of today like mobile, data analyst, web development and machine learning, among others,” said Sebastian Thrun, co-founder and CEO of Udacity.

India’s mobile economy is rapidly growing with talented developers in short supply. Today, the country has between 50,000 to 70,000 developers and is expected to need 20 million by the year 2020, according to Internet & Mobile Association of India. Android is the fastest growing mobile platform with companies battling to hire talented developers who are up-to-date on the latest Android technology and bring a fresh perspective to the product.

Udacity’s Nanodegree programmes are built by leading companies such as Google, Facebook, Cloudera and Amazon among others, bringing the latest technical knowledge to students anywhere in the world. Nanodegree graduates have launched new careers at companies like Google, AT&T, Intuit, Goldman Sachs, Nest and Flipkart.